Mary's murder: Lamha's sister testifies in court

The sister of Haleemath Lamha, on of the two accused in the murder case of Mary Grace Oned Pineda, a Filipino nurse who worked at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), has testified in court today.

Mary's husband Marvin S. Y. Vargas and Haleemath Lamha - both nurses at the same hospital - stand charged with the murder of Mary in October of 2021. While Marvin is charged with murder with intent, Lamha is accused of being an accomplice.

According to prosecution, Marvin and Lamha were having an affair at the time, and plotted and executed Mary's murder. Lamha is also charged with possession of medication which can only be used within hospital premises.

During the hearing held today at Criminal Court, Lamha's sister was presented at court as a witness on behalf of the state.

She told the court that there were problems between Marvin and Mary due to the affair between Marvin and Lamha. However, she is not aware of any conflicts between the couple on the day of the murder, she said.

During the witness statement, Lamha's sister also told the court that she informed the state that she did not want to testify in the case as she is Lamha's sister. However, prosecutors told her that she would not be forced to testify in any particular way and would be detained and presented to court if she denied to do so of her own will, she said.

Lamha's lawyers did not instruct her to not testify in a specific manner, she also added.

Prosecution also requested to have the sister's investigation statement presented at court citing that some of the prosecution's questions were not answered. However, Judge Hussain Faiz Rashaad decided against it.

Apart from the sister, two other nurses who worked with Lamha and Marvin at the time also testified today. According to one of the nurses, Lamha told them of her affair with Marvin and that divorcing in Philippines, which is where both Marvin and Mary are from, is illegal.

The second nurse told the court that Marvin sent screenshots of a conversation he had with someone to the nurse via Messenger. She added what although Marvin later asked to delete the chat logs, they forgot to do so and provided the logs to Maldives Police Serivce upon their request.

However, the topic of conversation on the chat logs were not revealed.

Additional witnesses will also testify in the case.